The present invention relates generally to media used in printers and, more particularly, to media utilized to print transparencies.
Printers of various types are virtually universally known. They are used daily in thousands of business organizations, university campuses and even homes. While printers are manufactured by a number of competing business entities, the printers themselves often fall into one of two categories.
The lower cost and familiar printer is the inkjet printer that utilizes carriage borne cartridges to eject ink onto print media. Such media are often papers but, in some cases, may be transparent sheets for use in presentations utilizing overhead projectors.
A more expensive but very popular printer is the laser printer. This printer is capable of faithful reproductions, in black and white and color, on a variety of media, including transparent sheets.
Generally, media include coatings that are specific for the type of printer for which the media are to be used. Thus, media intended for use in a laser printer will have a coating specific for that type of printer and will not produce an acceptable result in an inkjet printer.
Because of the specificity of coatings, manufacturers and retailers of print media must deal with supplies of two types of media. This is true, of course, in the case of transparent media. At present, transparent media, generally in the form of clear polyester sheets, are manufactured and sold having either a laser receptive coating or an inkjet receptive coating. The necessity of stocking two types of transparencies increases retailers"" overhead since shelf space must be provided for both types. Costs are increased also because of customer returns when, as a result of confusion between the two media types, the customer buys, and subsequently returns, an unwanted type of transparency.
In addition, many offices now have both inkjet and laser printers. Thus, space must be provided for the two types of transparencies and supplies must be monitored to ensure that adequate supplies of both are available. In addition, media waste occurs when, through inadvertence, an incompatible type of media is used in a printer.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to have an invention that would eliminate substantially customer confusion while lowering retailers"" costs. Desirably, such an invention would provide added value by reducing retail store shelf space, and office storage space, while substantially eliminating a source of customer confusion.
While the discussion above focuses on the commercial aspects of transparency use, another prior art limitation warrants consideration. It is well known that many transparencies trend to curl upon completion of the printing process or when placed on an overhead projector for presentations. Curling can be so significant a problem that some transparency manufacturers produce such media with a receiving layer on one side and an anti-curling layer on the other side. The addition of the anti-curling layer, of course, adds an extra step in the manufacturing process and increases product cost. With this in view, it would be highly desirable to have an invention that would produce the benefits set forth above while simultaneously eliminating a need for transparency anti-curling coatings.
According to the present invention, there is provided a transparency for receiving images generated by a printing device wherein the transparency includes a clear base film substrate. The substrate includes also a pair of surfaces wherein an inkjet receptive coating is disposed on one of the pair of surfaces and a laser receptive coating is disposed on another one of the pair of surfaces. The transparency includes at least one edge having disposed adjacent thereto a control strip having indicia for generating a signal indicative of which of said pair of surfaces is in position for printing by the printing device. The control strip can be disposed on the substrate surface that includes the inkjet receptive coating or on the substrate surface that includes the laser receptive coating. The invention includes a method of constructing a transparency utilizable in both inkjet and laser printers and a method of substantially eliminating curling in a printed transparency.
The present invention affords several advantages. For example, in return for a very small increase in manufacturing costs, the invention substantially reduces the overhead of the retailer since it conserves valuable shelf space and reduces accounting tasks as a single multi-purpose transparency replaces two. In addition, the present invention reduces the volume of customer returns since the likelihood of purchase of an incorrect type of transparency is reduced. Finally, an advantage derived from the invention is a marked diminution in curling of the transparency after it has undergone the printing process and during use in an overhead projector. This unexpected benefit enables the manufacturer to eliminate the anti-curling coating, thereby conserving costs.
In summary, a transparency embodying the invention is inexpensive to manufacture, reliable in performance and acceptable to the consuming public.